Rate of Reaction

The rate of reaction is the amount of time that it takes to have a

chemical reaction or the speed at which the product of the reaction
is produced.
There are six factors that affect chemical reactions, these are:

Catalysts: These are chemicals that speed up a chemical reaction in

certain examples.
Molecules need kinetic energy in these reactions to react, so in these
cases catalysts can increase the kinetic energy and therefore the
amount of reactant created from this:

To this where as you can see from the graph, the kinetic energy has
been increased and therefore more molecules can react.
These increase the potency of the reaction without any other change
in environment such as heat. An example of a catalyst is in the
reaction where Mn02 acts as a catalyst for the reaction of H202.
Surface Area: This is the amount of exposed matter on the outside of
a solid.
Reactions require a contact of particles so, where the solid has a
larger surface area, there will be more collisions possible more
quickly. This causes a quicker reaction.
This is quite an inefficient surface area for reaction because as you
can see many particles are out of reach of the Hydrogen.

However this layout is very efficient and will lead to a quick rate of
reaction because hardly any of the atoms are out of reach of the
hydrogen.
Temperature: With almost all reactions temperature increase the
rate of reaction. With an increase in temperature, there is an
increase of rate of reaction.
This is because, similarly to catalysts, the heat increases the kinetic
energy of the particles allowing them to collide and react more
frequently, this obviously leads to a higher rate of reaction.

These two sets of diagrams show the difference between low heat to
high heat.

As you can see from the diagrams the molecules increase in speed
and more reactions take place more quickly.
Pressure: Pressure affects the rate of reaction by increasing the
amount of collisions between the molecules.
This is because the particles are closer together and are forced into a
smaller volume.

Here the particles are further apart resulting in a

slower rate of reaction.

Here the particles are closer together resulting in a

higher rate of reaction

However not all gases are affected by pressure change and liquid and
solids are never affected by pressure change. This factor for change
in rate therefore, is not always relevant.
Concentration: Concentration is especially important in reactions
with acids like hydrochloric acid. The concentration of aqueous
solutions is usually expressed in Mol/L.
In a reaction an acid with a higher concentration would cause a
reaction to happen quicker than a solution with a lower
concentration.
This is shown in the diagram below.

The pot on the right contained the same amount of substance as the
pot on the left, however the pot on the right had a higher
concentration of hydrochloric acid than the one on the left, as you
can see, the left solid has completely reacted while the other solid
has some left. This proves that concentration affects reaction.
Nature of reactants: This is to do with the type of substance that is
reacting.
Overall some substances are more reactive than others:
Gases react the fastest out of the three mains states. This is because
in solids and liquids bonds have to be broken to change states.
Aqueous Ions react much faster. This is because the ions are much
easier to detach in liquids causing reactions to happen much more
easily.
Mostly the strength of the bonds affects the overall rate of reaction.
The Uses in Industry
The uses in industry are mostly to do with the speed and therefore
time efficiency of reactions. Most companies want to produce the
most product in the fastest meaning that the more they can increase
the rate of reactions in cost effective ways the more money they can
make.